No. 53 The paladins in the snow

After a long and prosperous reign, the virtuous Key Khosrow
prayed
that he might die before succumbing to pride. He renounced his
kingship, gave away his treasures, left the throne to Lohrasp, and
made his way into the mountains accompanied by his closest paladins.
He asked them to leave him and return to the valley. Zal, Rostam and
Gudarz obeyed him reluctantly, but others remained. Key Khosrow spent
the night reading the Avesta
(the primary collection of sacred Zoroastrian texts) and bade his
companions farewell. In the morning they searched for him in vain,
fell asleep and were buried in the snow.

Ignoring the text, the
artist has created a charming image of travellers caught in the snow.
Chinese motifs, such as the swirling purplish-gray clouds and the
tree stump delicately covered in snow, mingle with gestures observed
from life.

Together with Nos.
44,
45,
46,
47,
48,
49,
50,
54 and
55,
this illustration belonged to a copy of the Shahnameh
made for
Mohammad Juki b. Shah Rokh, brother of Ebrahim Soltan (the patron of Nos.
33,
34,
35,
36,
38 and
39).
Mohammad Juki died before the
manuscript was completed. In the early sixteenth century, it came
into the possession of a later Timurid ruler, Babur, who took it to
India when he founded the Mughal dynasty there.